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The 2012 Fiery Food Challenge
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Behind the Scenes at the Fiery Food Challenge
For over a decade, the Fiery Food Challenge has been a front-runner in competitions within the zesty, spicy food industry. Recognition in the form of the acclaimed "Golden Chile" is awarded to companies across the country that produce everything from salsas to hot sauces, snacks, seasonings and even sweets. With hundreds of companies entering products in 100+ categories, the playing field is wide and very colorful.
As is typical with many contests, so much of what goes on behind the scenes is not public knowledge. The success of any contest, or challenge, lies in the integrity of the judging process, score tallies and evaluations. Products must fit the criteria of the categories in which they are entered, and the rules of the "blind-tasting" must be followed to the letter. The judging takes place over three days, eight hours each day, and is fast-paced and exciting. We seat anywhere between 50-100 judges at each 4-hour session. A buffet table of palette-cleansing foods; cheeses, crackers, and fruit; along with dairy products like milk and whipped cream are offered throughout the judging process to guarantee an accurate assessment of the each product tested.
The Fiery Food Challenge uses a number system so the judges have no knowledge of...
Eat More Heat Crew to be Featured on the History Channel's Hairy Bikers Show
October 17, 2011 – Houston, TX
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPICY SPECIALIST JAMES WRECK BRINGS WORLD'S HOTTEST PEPPER TO HISTORY CHANNEL
EAT MORE HEAT! Crew to be featured on the new show Hairy Bikers
The hottest chile in the world is the Trinidad Scorpion "Butch T". On October 21st at 10/9c on the History Channel show Hairy Bikers with the help of James Wreck from EatMoreHeat.com; will be the first national program to feature this Guinness record setting pepper.
Hairy Bikers hosts Bill Allen and Paul Patranella cruise into Houston where...
Dave's Gourmet Introduces Million Dollar Sauce Contest
Dave's Gourmet, one of the oldest and most popular hot sauce and specialty sauce makers in the industry today, realize that there are some very talented up-and-coming sauce makers with brilliant ideas when it comes to sauces, condiments, dips and salsas. To help attract some of that talent, Dave's Gourmet has announced that they are holding a Million Dollar Sauce Contest. Any budding flavor maestro with a killer sauce recipe can win up to $1 million in royalties from Dave's Gourmet, Inc. if they have a winning product.
Entrants that are selected to be marketed by Dave’s Gourmet under its label (Brand Prize Winners) will receive royalties of as much as $1,000,000 and may have their name put on the label. Royalties to any Brand Prize winner will be calculated as 5% of that product’s sales (not including shipping, sales taxes, and returned product) for a period of six years or until payment of $1,000,000 million dollars in royalties is reached, whichever comes first. Those selected to have their products marketed are Brand Prize Winners. These Brand Prize Winners will each receive a $2000 advance payment after filling out appropriate forms.
For all the details, click here!
Dexter Fan? While You Watch Season 6, Don't Go Without Following the 2GuysTalking Dexter Podcast!
The hit Showtime series Dexter is more popular than ever - the Season Six premiere's ratings were up 24 percent compared with its fifth season opener - and fervor in this show has never been higher! If you're a diehard Dexterite or "Dexpert", you owe it to yourself to listen to the 2GuysTalking Dexter Podcast, where co-host Mike Wilkerson and I review each recent episode from the current season and bluntly lay it out what we loved and hated about each show's writing and storytelling, acting, the our thoughts on the new theme of religion in Dexter's life and the "master and apprentice" baddy duo played by Edward James Olmos and Colin Hanks, the killer humor and more! You're invited to tune in and see if you agree or disagree with us on our ratings of each episode.
You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or subscribe to the RSS feed.
If you like what you hear and consider yourself a huge Dexter fanatic, be sure to "like" the 2GuysTalking Dexter Podcast page on Facebook or visit the podcast show page at http://2guystalking.com/dexterpodcast.html.
Mike Wilkerson and Scott Roberts in the studio
Review - Bonfatto's Apple Pepper Jack Sauce
If you're looking for a company that's truly one of the bright, new shining stars of 2011, look no further than Bonfatto's Wing Sauce & Marinade. Owner David Letterman (not the late night talk show host) took his grandfather Guy Bonfatto's restaurant and introduced a line of spicy sauces with a uniqueness and panache rarely seen in even this overcrowded gourmet food market.
I first encountered Letterman and his Bonfatto's lineup at this year's Peppers at the Beach (you can watch my entire video here courtesy of ILoveItSpicy.com). Each and every one of his concoctions boasted an above-average burst of pleasure on my tongue, making Bonfatto's one of my favorite new manufacturers of the year.
One of his best offerings, the Apple Pepper Jack Sauce impressed me to pick up a bottle at Peppers just to try on some ice cream, one of my all-time most beloved sweet/snack foods...
Open Fields 2011 Photos
The weather was spot-on perfect for Open Fields 2011. Although last year was thought of as the final Open Fields chilehead gathering/camping excursion since organizer Jim Campbell no longer maintained chile pepper plants on the patch of land that hosted the annual event, the bond of camaraderie proved stronger and people came despite the lack of fresh pods to pick. Although, according to Jim's estimates, only half the number that regularly attends showed up during some part of the weekend, there were still enough friendly, chile-loving folks and cooked-up food to satisfy everyone.
I brought my boys Cory and Kevin to give them a little taste of what Open Fields was all about. Whether it was playing catch football with Jim and me, or tending to the bonfire all day, my boys had a blast; although by the end of Saturday they were...
2011 Weekend of Fire Musings and New Products
What possibly might be my most eagerly-anticipated fiery foods event of the year was finally here - the Jungle Jim's Weekend of Fire Fiery Food Expo. I rated last year's show as one of my top 10 moments as a blogger. I knew that it could in no way honestly live up to anything I built up in my mind, so I was just looking for a laid-back, relaxing, good time. In fact, if my girlfriend would have been able to make the trip with me, I would have had an even more stand-off approach to the hot sauce. Alas, she didn't, but I didn't kill myself to record and report on every single happening during the show. I'll leave the non-stop work like that to Al "Buddah" Goldenberg of I Love It Spicy. So I took things at my own pace, wasn't worried about this thing and that thing, and had a terrific time just hanging out.
Here are some random thoughts and musings about my travels and the show in general...
World's Biggest Hot Sauce Giveaway Contest Drawing
Finally! In case you missed it last night, here's the drawing to determine the winner of the 1000th Post / Largest Hot Sauce Contest Giveaway in History:
2011 Weekend of Fire Photos
Jeff 'Black Bull' Stevenson AKA Crazy Uncle Jester holding up a monster jolokia
I'm back from the 5th Annual Jungle Jim's Weekend of Fire. Unfortunately, due to sickness I had to bail early on Sunday, which was the second day of the two-day event. Thankfully, plenty happened on Saturday. I got to meet all the new vendors, try some amazing new products from both first time and established sauce manufacturers, see some exciting food contests, ride the monorail out to the new BBQ Alley, participated in the 3rd Bloggers Roundtable discussion, paid a visit to the always-breathtaking Jungle Jim's International Market, witnessed the 2011 Defcon Deathmatch Wing-Eating Contest, and enjoyed a tasty BBQ dinner with chileheads and vendors after the show.
I took plenty of photos as well. Click on one of the links below to check them out:
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2011 Defcon Deathmatch at the 5th Annual Weekend of Fire
Here's the full video of the 2011 Defcon Deathmatch National Wing-Eating Championship at the 5th Annual Weekend of Fire this past Saturday, October 1, 2011 (the only part that's edited is when the death certificates release forms are handed out). If you want to skip right to the contest action, go into about about the 14:45 mark:
Mark Ennis was this year's winner. 2010 champ Steve "The Machine" Smallwood took second place, while 2009 winner David "Hudd" Huddleston took third.
For more info on Defcon Sauces, go to www.defconsauces.com.
Is Australian Geographic's List of the Hottest Chile Peppers 100 Percent Accurate?
Australian Geographic posted a web article a couple of weeks ago listing the top 10 hottest chile peppers. It's a fairly interesting list with quite a bit of factual, but most chile fans can immediately spot a few glaring errors:
1) The Scoville Heat Unit numbers are WAY off. Where on earth did they get these? The Infinity Chiles coming in at 1,250,000 SHUs? Never happened. Nagas (AKA bhut jolokias, naga jolokias, ghost chiles, etc.) reaching as high as 1.1 million SHU for jolokias (the actual average are considerably lower in virtually all other testing that's been done on them)? What lab(s) provided the HPLC testing results for these? Update October 3, 2011: Nick “Woody” Woods of http://www.firefoods.co.uk has provided a link to the HPLC test results for his Infinity Chili at http://www.firefoods.co.uk/infinity_results.htm, where it is given a rating of 1,257,468 SHU.
2) The inclusion of unstable hybrids....
Firetalkers: Interview With Steve Seabury of High River Sauces
One of the newer sauce creators of 2011, Steve Seabury of High River Sauceswas casually introduced to many of us chilehead bloggers at this year's Peppers at the Beach, where we were first introduced to his own Hellacious Hot Sauce (review to come soon!). During that event, he and I mutually discovered that we were fellow metalheads, and graciously gave me a copy of his Mosh Potatoes cookbook, which features dozens of juicy recipes from a bevy of well-known hard rockin' bands. Under the High River Sauces banner, Steve also produces sauces for other parties, and is slowly expanding his own condiment line at the same time...
Scott: What's your professional background?
Steve: I currently work for a record company called eOne Entertainment. For the past 17 years I have been honored to work for various management, marketing and record companies.
Scott: And a lot of what you do is focused around heavy metal music. What do you like most about metal?
Steve: I love the "F*** YOU" attitude in heavy metal music. Most people are terrified to say what they want because of the PC Police. I say crank it up and give the middle finger to the system. Metal is all about having balls and about conforming to your own beliefs...
2011 Weekend of Fire Next Weekend!
It seemed like this event would NEVER get here. I'm talking about Jungle Jim's Weekend of Fire Fiery Foods Show, which is the largest of its kind in the Midwest. As it was expanded last year, the 2011 proceedings will have the maximum of 55 indoor vendors and a plethora of spicy eating contests. If you love hot sauce and flavor you have to attend!
This year, the biggest addition will be the debut of BBQ Alley, an...
What is Your Take on Hot Sauce Awards?
If you're familiar at all with the spicy food or gourmet food industries, you probably know about the two main awards held to honor hot sauces, other similar condiments and associated hot snack items: the Scovie Awards and ZestFest's Fiery Food Challenge, with a third contest gaining a bit more traction, The Hot Pepper Awards. There are others that can be mentioned, such as the Fleur Di Lis Awards from the NOLA Hot Sauce Show. Plus you can't ignore is what many consider to be even bigger than all of them - the SOFI Award, given out by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade.
The original goals of these annual contests were to bestow prestige to what the judges of each contest considered to be the best of the best, and to give exposure to products that may have otherwise flown under the radar in foodies' eyes.
The questions I am posing are:
For sauce manufacturers, is it worth paying the entry fees for these awards? Have you seen any significant increase in exposure or sales from winning these or any other competition?
For consumers, does an award have any influence on whether or not you may purchase a product? Do you keep up with award-winners or companies that have earned numerous Scovies, Golden Chiles, etc.?
Chili Pepper Madness Interviews Me
I want to extend a big "thank you" to Michael Hultquist of the Chili Pepper Madness blog for recently taking the time to ask me a few questions. Mike's a great guy with a terrific website and it was fun to be interviewed by him.
If you haven't read the interview, you can do so by clicking here. By the way, in one of the last questions, Mike asked who I would want to play me if a movie were ever made about me. An interesting query, and one that I would like to ask everyone reading this: If your life could be turned into a movie, who would you like to have play YOU on the silver screen?
